I was thrilled to see Ms. Jones' letter here with her thoughts,
ideas and concerns on funding issues for local construction projects.
The more people creatively involved in our community issues the
better the outcomes will be.

I do have to clarify one important point, though. Ms. Jones cited
the cost of the new library as $25 million, when it's actually
about $13.3 million.

And most of that doesn't need to come from city and borough coffers.
Local leaders are mapping out strategies to obtain funds from
several other sources, including the state (through SB-119, designed
to fund construction of new libraries), private foundations and
local capital campaign efforts. If all elements fall into place,
we can build a badly needed new library for less than $4 million
in local government funds.